There has been, to my knowledge, a debate surrounding the term ‘gif’. Proper pronunciation of this online lingo is the battlefield for those who wish to use the hard G sound versus those who wish to use the soft G sound.

Over the years, ‘gif’ has made appearances in the digital graphics world as an acronym, G.I.F. or Graphics Interchange Format. Since the dawn of this bitmap image in 1987, the now seemingly colloquial term has won the hearts of net-users young and old alike. For the lack of a better, shorter word, we have all accepted graphics interchange format as simply, gif, not G.I.F.

Normally, shortened words, such as inc. for incorporated, or comp. for company, has the distinct privilege of being tossed around in the format of ‘1st syllable(dot)’, unlike acronyms ‘initial(dot)initial(dot)…’. Surely, if gif was a shortened word, then the argument for using the hard G sound for the word ‘graphics’ could be made.

But then again, this word is not a shortened word, it is an acronym. Therefore, we draw other examples into the mix, such as the U.N. for United Nation, or P.B. and J. for peanut butter and jelly. As you can see, acronyms are a way to shorten the expression, but in doing so, completely cuts out the rest of the word. We are left with little clue as to the represented phrase, except the first letter of each word. U.N. then can very much mean Umbilici Nankeen, and P.B. and J. could easily mean Prickly Beard and Junkets.

Acronyms are pronounced by its stringed letter names. P.B. and J. is not pronounced ‘Pubjeh’; you get the idea. I posit that because gif is a file format, and that dots are rather an essential part of programming, if one were to add dots between each alphabet, that would corrupt the .gif file completely.

Naturally, the dots fell out of common usage for the word ‘gif', and in effect, christened a new word: gif. Not as an acronym, not as a shortened word, but its very own identity.

As that stands, the pronunciation of G next to I requires a soft G sound when next to F and not V.

Yes, it sounds like a peanut butter brand, Jif, but at least it is pronounced intuitively. We have enough odd-spelling words in English, thank you. I admire the hard G advocate’s agenda, really. This debate has informed many of the true meaning of gif. However, it’s time to put aside these petty differences (or indifferences to some of you).

By indicating that the last alphabet is an F and not a V, one can contemplate on the little-known acronym for the word ‘format’, rather than the now obvious G for ‘graphic’.

Thank you for your time.